Luna - The weird, the wonderful, and the lonely
by Kit McKai
Summary: "The loneliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they do not wish to see others suffer the way they do." – unknown quote.


The Lonely Life of 'Loopy' Luna Lovegood

"Luna, why don't you act more normal? Then you might have some friends..."

"Did your parents drop you on your head at birth?..."

"There's no such thing as a Crumple-Horned Snorkack..."

"There's something not right with that one..."

"They say she's mad in the head..."

"No wonder no-one ever sits next to her, or hangs out with her..."

"What a weirdo!..."

"Oddball..."

"Cuckoo..."

"Freak..."

Their voices spun round in her head. She couldn't sleep. Tears slipped down her cheeks silently in the darkness. It was Luna's third day at Hogwarts, and already she had been avoided, given strange looks, asked if there was something wrong with her, and talked about behind her back. No-one had bullied her outright yet, thank-goodness, but that wasn't the point.

The point was, she thought, that this was meant to be her new start, her fresh beginning, her chance to meet friends and finally, finally belong somewhere. Luna had never fitted in, but she had thought that was because she only hung around with muggles. She had gone to a Muggle Junior School, because her father had thought it good to 'mingle' with people her own age, and to find out what muggle lives are like.

She had tried never to practise magic in front of her class-mates, and the few times she did nobody was looking anyway, and if they saw, they just passed it off as one of those unexplainable things that happened to Luna. Nobody liked her, or sat next to her at lunch. They called her 'Loopy,' and kicked her in the playground when they thought the teachers weren't looking. If the teachers saw, they obviously didn't care enough to do anything about it.

Luna never dared to tell her father about it, because then he'd stop sending her there, and she'd lose out on the only interaction she got with people her own age. Luna had no brothers or sisters, nobody to play with. She mostly made up stories and imaginary friends to keep herself occupied, and learnt how to play alone. But she liked her teachers at school, and she often enjoyed listening in to the conversations of her classmates, and pretending they cared about her, and that she was their friend. She would put up with the bullying just to escape being all alone, all the time.

Then, one day, to Luna's delight, there was a new girl in class. Her name was Ellie, and she seemed happy and interesting – and open minded. She came into school the first day with no school uniform, but instead, a pretty, floaty fairy dress and pink shoes and a plastic magic wand. When the teacher asked her to introduce herself, she said,

"Hello everyone, my name is Ellie, I'm a fairy, and I come from a place called Sylithia."

Everyone laughed, and Ellie laughed with them, but Luna could see she was seriously serious about what she said. When the teacher asked for volunteers to help Ellie settle in, Luna stuck her hand up straight away.

The two became fast friends, and played together every day in the playground, making up wonderful stories about dragons and fairies and witches, good and bad, and their games were perfectly real. They were so absorbed they didn't notice the giggles and whispers that surrounded them wherever they went. Luna introduced Ellie to Alicia, her invisible friend, and Ellie introduced Luna to Sandy, hers. Then all four of them played together, and they still ignored the whispers.

One day, when Luna trusted Ellie enough, she took her to a quiet corner of the playground, and told her the truth about herself, her magic, and the wizarding world. Ellie believed her without proof – she had sort of known all along, she said. Then Luna made a flower blow off a blossoming tree and fall almost to the floor, where it hovered, hidden to everyone else by their legs, above the ground. Ellie gazed at it, beaming, then hugged Luna as hard as she could. She'd never seen real magic before, and she was thrilled by it. After this they were closer than ever.

But then, one day, disaster struck. Ellie's family were moving away, and she had to go with them. The girls cried a lot on their last day together, and they exchanged friendship bracelets and promised never to forget each other.

After this, Luna seemed to retreat into her fantasy world more than ever, and everyone just ignored her. They didn't know she hung on their every word, or see the tears that threatened to spill over at lunchtime on her little table on her own, or hear her finally let them go at night when her father had gone to sleep.

Instead, Luna maintained her constant vague smile and was friendly to everyone she saw, and smiled and waved when she caught them staring. She never thought to take out her radish earings, which were special to her, or to take the pencils out of her hair, because that is where they lived.

She could keep all sorts of useful things in her hair, she found. There was so much of it, and it came in quite useful for keeping her drawing pencils, and clean paintbrushes. Luna was always drawing something, mostly the Nargles that were invisible to other people, and the Wrackspurts which floated round people's heads and made their brains go all funny.

This is often what she did in the playground, drawing. Sometimes she drew the people she wished she was friends with. Then, one day, one of her 'friends' caught sight of it, and tore up her drawing-pad which was filled with all her sketches, and threw it away. When Luna tried to retrieve it, she was too small and ended up falling in the rubbish bin. She got some of the pages back in the end, but then a teacher came and told her off and confiscated the drawings, which she never saw again.

She never drew in school again, but kept her art for out of school, where she delighted her father with her skill. Often, her art went in the Quibbler, and when it did, Luna's heart ached with joy.

She wished her heart was aching for joy now, instead of with the pain of rejection.

 _Never mind,_ she thought hopefully to herself, _I'll make some friends tomorrow. Or the next. In fact, I have my whole time at Hogwarts to make friends. I'm sure I'll find some somewhere._

A/N: Because Luna is not similar to me in any way, shape or form...

I do not believe in Disclaimers... If I owned the characters, why would I post it on this site?

Nevertheless, I do not own any characters or anything. Harry Potter belongs to JKR.


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